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1/17/20

Fort Riley : Ghosts and UFO Tales

In north central Kansas sits historic Fort Riley established as "Camp Center" in 1852 and a year later renamed with its current designation. Originally it was established to protect pioneers coming through on two major trails. The fort was associated with the western front in the Civil War and in later efforts with the Native populations of the western territories. Although home to numerous Army infantry units it has long been associated with 1st Infantry Division (1955-1996).

For many, during WW1, it was home to "Camp Funston" and gained notoriety for the Spanish Influenza that broke out there and was carried around the world by soldiers.

In more recent decades, two stories of Fort Riley have been incorporated in to the mythos of Unidentified Flying Objects. Philip Corso in his controversial and challenged book, The Day After Roswell, alleged one of the alien bodies from the Roswell, New Mexico crash in 1947 had gone through the Fort on its journey to Wright-Patterson in Ohio.

Later, a tale from December of 1964 alleged that before 2:00 a.m. Dec. 10, 1964, returning soldiers were tasked to assist with a search for a crashed UFO. Intense searchlights from low flying helicopters swept far corners of the Fort landscape with orders to kill anyone interfering. The recovered disc was 35-48 ft. diameter and 12-18 ft. tall with a fin like protrusion and aluminum like skin. It had black squares about 9 inches that jutted out from the rim.

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SPOTTING AN URBAN LEGEND

One of the obstacles for anyone doing "serious" research is trying to untangle the truth from layers of obfuscation, confabulations, mixed up memories, and plain and simple tall tale. So how do you identify an urban legend?

Here are some tips:1. Consider its structure. Does it have all the normal "story" components of a beginning, a middle, or an end? Does it have a "punch line"....or a tag line....."no matter how much they tried they could never get the stain out...." Chances are it is an urban legend.
2. Watch out for lines just as : 'This is a true story...' or 'This really happened to a friend of a friend' .
3. "Only names and places have been changed"....you have heard the same story before with different little (or updated) details?
4. Is there a peculiar lack of details as to names, places, dates, or exact details of the event?
5. Can the "facts" be verified in newspapers, books, interviews, etc.

Things to remember:Often stories of hauntings or other urban legends do not have any context; there is no romantic tale of why a ghost is there or what caused the ghost to stay.

Satanism, witchcraft, and cults - are not as prevalent as some would have you believe (check with studies by national police organizations and the FBI). There have been more lynchings in this country than the burning of witches at the stake and more accidents than murders.

What to Do if You Find It Is An Urban Legend?Record it - it is a legend in the making and should be preserved. Note its sources, their background, where they heard it, etc. Contact local libraries, history centers, and universities to see if they have any oral history projects collections. If not, offer to start one!

Enjoy it - urban stories are fun, they connect people with some common sense lessons and values, and reaffirm we are all human (thus the wry quality often found in urban legends).

Sometimes - it is okay to just enjoy a good story!

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History Terms

Monograph - a self-contained work on a single topic or a narrow subject. Its scholarly status is verified by the inclusion of notes (footnotes or end notes) and some form of indexing (via table of contents or subject index).